Prosecutors yesterday rejected a request from former Bureau of Investigation director-general Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂) to file a last-ditch appeal against his conviction for leaking confidential information.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, the only agency empowered to file an extraordinary appeal, said the Taiwan High Court’s conviction of Yeh in May for leaking confidential information was correct, based on facts and evidence, and did not require further examination.
The decision leaves Yeh without any further legal options to have the final High Court verdict overturned or amended.
Yeh was found to have tipped off Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and a businessman in April 2008 that prosecutors would raid their offices when investigating Ker’s alleged ties to an illegal mining operation in Hualien County.
Refusing to accept the High Court verdict in the case, Yeh filed a request with the Supreme Prosecutors Office on July 14 — the day he began serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence — asking the country’s top prosecutor to launch an extraordinary appeal on his behalf.
Yeh, who served as Investigation Bureau chief under former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), has also been found guilty in a separate case of concealing evidence in a money laundering case related to Chen, for which he was sentenced to three years and nine months. That verdict is still being appealed.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry